There’s still time left until the tax deadline, so if you haven’t already lodged, now is the time get cracking and maximise your return this year!

If you’re ready to lodge, take a look at our easy, online, 5-step process here.

In this article, we’ve come up with our top tips to help you get your return right and maximise your tax refund this year: There are several deductions you can claim on your tax return, ranging from tax deductions for charity donations to work from home claims. You may also be able to claim tax deductions without receipts. We have come up with our top tax tips for you to help get your tax returns right the first time and maximise your refund this year:

1. Maximise your tax deductions –

There are several deductions you can claim on your tax return, ranging from tax deductions for charity donations to work from home claims. You may also be able to claim tax deductions without receipts. We have come up with our top tax tips for you to help get your tax returns right the first time and maximise your refund this year:

If you are claiming less than $200, you don’t need to keep receipts. The average amount claim

If you are claiming less than $200, you don’t need to keep receipts. The average amount claimed in personal tax returns for work related expenses in Australia is $1,920 per year, so claim what you can to ensure you don’t miss out on a great tax refund. Just make sure that you know what you are allowed to claim in your occupation and keep the right records so the Tax Office doesn’t disallow your claims.

If you’re not sure what to claim, have a look here at the Personal Tax Specialists’ website where you can find the specific tax deductions for more than 30 occupations.

Did you know that you can even claim our fees? You’ll have to pay a fee to your tax agent for lodging your tax return. Their skill and knowledge can save you much more than it costs, in time, stress, and in dollars, plus you can claim their fees.

2. Lodge online – You can significantly speed up the time it takes to process your personal tax return by lodging online. The ATO can take around ten weeks to process a paper tax return but by submitting online your return can be processed in less than two weeks.

3. No receipts needed for items less than $10 – Sometimes it’s difficult to get (or keep) receipts for all your minor purchases during the year. Rather than having to worry about them, just keep a diary with the information that would normally be shown on a receipt including the date, the business name, the item purchased, and the price. You can then claim up to $200 a year for these small expenses, without keeping any receipts.

4. Claim for your donations – If you have made donations of $2 or more to charities during the year you can claim a charity donation tax deduction on your return. If you donated less than $10 into a box or bucket, you wouldn’t even need to have kept the receipts. But if you received anything in return, for example a pen, a badge, or a raffle ticket, then you can’t make a claim.

5. Save on tax all year round, not just at tax time –

You could ask your employer to pay for some of your work expenses using the salary sacrifice system. This way, you won’t need to keep any receipts for your expenses and you will have more money in your pocket at the end of each week (rather than waiting until the end of the year when you lodge your tax return to get your refund).

Some work expenses you could use in the salary sacrifice system are:

• Laptops computers (one per year)
• Mobile phones or PDAs
• Tools or work equipment
• Subscriptions to magazines or journals (that relate to your work)
• Meals at work (breakfast, lunch, morning and afternoon tea, and dinner–as long as it is provided at work and not at a restaurant or coffee shop)

When you salary sacrifice, your employer pays for the expense on your behalf and deducts the GST exclusive cost from your gross pay. You pay less for the item (because your employer can claim back the GST) and the tax deducted from your pay is less.

For more information about any of these tips and so much more, contact Personal Tax Specialists Pty Ltd on 1300 335 675, info@personaltaxspecialists.com.au or www.personaltaxspecialists.com.au.

About Personal Tax Specialists

• We offer personal tax returns for investors and people working in professional occupations.
• We specialise in tax returns for a variety of occupations, including travel consultants, nurses, teachers, building industry, sales representatives, the defence force, journalists, airline industry, chefs, emergency services, real estate, security guards, rental property owners, and share investors.

We were established in 2009.